By a slim 4-3 vote, the City Council approved an accounting maneuver Monday night that would free up funds in the chief’s budget to cover Ritter’s $90,000 salary and the pay of five other colleagues for the rest of the year.

The council’s vote also ended, for now, a months-old dispute over Mayor Linda Thompson’s decision to hire Ritter and her own senior aide Barbara Vayo — whose $60,000 salary is budgeted in the chief’s office this year — at salaries that were $10,000 higher than approved in the city.

City Controller Dan Miller put a hold on the paychecks Thanksgiving week when the appropriated amount for salaries in Ritter’s office was exhausted. He also said he wouldn’t accept the administration’s bid to retroactively assign the salary cost for one of three police officers in the chief’s office to another budget line without Council’s approval.

With the council’s consent, Miller said he could authorize the paychecks as early as Tuesday.

Besides Ritter and Vayo, the others affected are Hector Baez and Elijah Massey, two internal affairs detectives who also work part time as security for Thompson, community policing coordinator Michael Parker and Patrol Officer Jennifer Jenkins, whose position had been reassigned.

It was not clear Monday night whether the resumption of the paychecks would cause the local Fraternal Order of Police lodge to drop a federal Fair Labor Standards action against the city.

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